Refrigerator cabinets

ABSTRACT

A refrigerator cabinet having an inner lining, an outer surface layer, and an insulating body of foamed plastic material between the inner lining and outer surface layer. The outer layer is formed of a first sheet of thin material having a plurality of folds so as to define three walls of the container and a recess for accommodating a refrigeration unit and an air duct passage. A second sheet of thin material defining at least an additional surface of said container, is arranged so as to be secured to a plurality of flanges on said first sheet of material.

United States Patent Kitson [54] REFRIGERATOR CABINETS [72] Inventor: Joshua Wilson Kitson, Huntingdon,

England [73] Assignee: U. S. Philips Corporation, New

York, NY.

22 Filed: Jan. 20, 1910 211 Appl. No.: 4,193

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Jan. 21, 1969 Great Britain ..3,270/69 Jan. 21, 1969 Great Britain.... ..3,27l/69 Jan. 21, 1969 Great Britain.... ..3,272l69 Jan. 21, 1969 Great Britain.... ..3,273/69 I March 14, 1969 Great Britain.... ..l3,438/69 July 23, 1969 Great Britain... ..36,9l3/69 Sept. 4, 1969 Great Britain .....43,861l69 [52] US. Cl. ..220/9 F, 312/2M- [51] Int. Cl. ..B65d 25/18 [58] Field of Search ..220/9 F, 10; 312/214 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,552,641 5/1951 Morrison ..220/9 F 1 Dec. 26, 1972 2/1953 Sterling ..220/9 F UX 2,653,139 9/1953 Sterling ..220/9 F UX 3,014,611 12/1961 Marshall ..220/9 F 2,958,210 11/1960 Rill, .lr ..312/214 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 424,833 5/1967 Switzerland ..312/214 Primary Examiner-Joseph R. Leclair Assistant Examiner-James R. Garrett Attorney-Frank R. Trifari [57] ABSTRACT A refrigerator cabinet having an inner lining, an outer surface layer, and an insulating body of foamed plastic material between the inner lining and outer surface layer. The outer layer is formed of a first sheet of thin material having a plurality of folds so as to define three walls of the container and a recess for accommodating a refrigeration unit and an air duct passage. A second sheet of thin material defining at least an additional surface of said container, is arranged so as to be secured to a plurality of flanges on said first sheet of material.

11 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures REFRIGERATOR CABINETS This invention relates generally to refrigerator cabinets and specifically to a refrigerator cabinet having an insulated body of a foamed plastics material which is formed in situ between two surface layers. The two surface layers form an inner lining and an outer container for the resulting cabinet and the present invention discloses such an outer container and a method for its construction.

The cabinet for a domestic refrigerator is usually of a box-like shape with a recess, usually at a lower rear edge of the cabinet for housing a refrigeration unit. It is necessary to provide means for allowing a flow of air for cooling the refrigeration unit and this is usually effected by means of an air duct in the refrigerator installation.

when constructing anouter container of an inexpensive sheet material such as cardboard, this material may be folded without difficulty in a suitable way to provide a box-like shape and the folding may also be such as to include a suitable recess along one edge for housing the refrigeration 'unit. It is desirable that a side of the refrigerator cabinet maintain an unbroken line from a floor level to a top of the cabinet for the sake of giving an attractive external appearance to the installation. This preferred feature is not easy to achieve if it is necessary to provide some sort of air duct to permit air to flow to a back of the cabinet since the inclusion of a separate air duct will be likely to require additional components in the construction and thus cause a higher manufacturing cost of the cabinet. I have now discovered a method of constructing an outer container which gives an unbroken appearance to the side walls of the cabinet and which can enable an air duct to provided without increasing the number of components required.

According to one feature of the invention there is disclosed a refrigerator cabinet including a plastics foam insulating body which is formed in situ between inner and outer surface layers, in which the outer surface layer includes a single sheet of thin material which is folded so as to define three walls of the cabinet and a recess for a refrigeration unit. The sheet of material may additionally be folded to define an air duct. The sheet of material may also include flanges for enabling a further sheet for defining additional walls of th cabinet to be joined thereto.

Preferably the recess and duct are flanked at the sides of the cabinet by double walls of the outer surface layer, a space between which double walls is capable of being filled with the plastics foam.

The sheet of thin impermeable material may be a moisture-proofed cardboard.

The invention also includes an outer container and a method of constructing an outer container.

The outer container of the invention has been found to be particularly suitable for use with the inner lining disclosed in co-pending applications Ser. Nos. 4,194, 4,198, 4,199 and 4,197 filed-concurrently herewith.

By way of example, an embodiment of the invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the complete outer container,

FIGS. 2 and 3 showthe two members from which the container of FIG. 1 was constructed, FIG. 3 being viewed along the direction of arrow A,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the circled portion IV on FIG. 2, showing a first stage in forming a fold to join two portions of a wrapper together along the back of the cabinet,

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view of a completed fold along the line V V on FIG. 1',

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view along the line VI VI on FIG. 1,

FIG. 7 is front elevational view showing a cabinet having inner and outer surface layers, and

FIG. 8 is a sectional elevation view showing the cabinet of FIG. 7 having the foamed plastic material between the layers.

FIG. 1 shows the complete outer container which comprises a wrapper 1 and a rear panel 2 which are shown in greater detail in FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively. It should be noted that the rear panel of FIG. 3 is depicted in an attitude exactly corresponding to. that of FIG. 1 so that the edge of the panel which is to the left in the Figure is in fact further away from .the reader than the right hand edge of the panel.

The wrapper 1 comprises a top wall 3, side walls 4, bottom walls 5 and 6, innerside walls 7 and flanges 8. The bottom wall 5 defined the bottom of the cabinet construction which formed a suitable base upon which the cabinet could rest during operation of the refrigerator. The further bottom wall 6formed part of a duct for admitting air to a refrigeration unit, the width of the duct being substantially the whole width of the cabinet between the inner side walls 7. The inner side walls 7 were located at the ends of a recess formed along the rear lower edge of the refrigerator cabinet and thus defined a space at the back of the cabinet where a refrigeration unit could be fitted. The flanges 8 provided support for parts of the rear panel 2, defining another surface of the recess.

The rear panel 2 comprises a wall 9 with flanges 10, a wall 11 with flanges 12, and a wall 13 with flanges 14.

In assembling together the wrapper l and the rear panel 2'to form the refrigerator cabinet outer container, the rear panel 2 was first placed on an assembly jig which had an external shape corresponding to the internal shape of the finished outer container. The wrapper 1 was folded around the jig and the rear panel 2 and the adjacent edges of the material were then fastened together by overlapping joints which were secured by staples. An example of one way of starting to fold the edges to provide a suitable joint is shown in FIG. 4 which is an enlarged view of the rear bottom corner of the cabinet, the region denoted by the circled area IV on FIG. 2. A finished seam is shown in FIG. 5 which is a cross-section along the line V V on FIG. 1 and FIG. 6 which is a cross-section along the line VI VI in FIG. 1 shows a joint between the rear panel and wrapper.

FIGS. 7 and 8 show a typical refrigerator cabinet formed of inner surface layer 15 and outer shell 16 with the foamed plastic material 17 therebetween.

In an embodiment of the refrigerator outer container which was constructed, the wrapper 1 and rear panel 2 were made from a cardboard sheet material which had been laminated with aluminum foil on its external surfaces. The purpose of the aluminum foil was to provide a moisture barrier which would restrict ingress of moisture from the surrounding atmosphere into the plastics foam insulation layer when the refrigerator cabinet was in service. It is not of course essential to the invention that the impermeable sheet material used should be cardboard plus aluminum and in suitable circumstances the outer container might be constructed of thin sheet metal or perhaps cardboard coated with a film of plastics material.

During operation of the refrigerator cabinet, the air duct at the base of the container which is defined by the bottom wall 6 and the space between the side wall 7 of the cabinet allowed a flow of cooling air to pass beneath the cabinet to a refrigeration unit housed in the recess at the back of the cabinet. With the plastics foam insulation material completely lining the interior surfaces of the outer container and filling the spaces between walls 4 and 7', these walls provide a suitably firm base upon which the cabinet can stand and the walls also provide suitable ends to the recess for accommodating the refrigeration. unit whilst allowing the external cabinet side wall 4 to have an unbroken surface to enhance the external appearance of the cabinet.

The foregoing description of an embodiment of the invention has been given by way of example only and a number of modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For instance it is not always essential that a flange should be provided on a particular one of the two components of the outer container and in a different arrangement a similar effect might be achieved if a flange was provided on the other component to the one specifically described in this example. The method of fastening the joints is not restricted to the use of staples and any other suitable method such as an adhesive, adhesive tape, interlocking folds or welding might alternatively be used.

I have found in practice that the invention provides an inexpensive outer container which is suitable for being used in a foamed cabinet construction. The assembly of the parts of the container can be effected in a way which will require only a minimum amount of additional handwork in applying further sealing tapes and materials so that the risk of leakage of foam material during the foaming operation is substantially reduced without the need for every joint to be laboriously sealed by hand. Since the outer container is constructed of only two parts, the total length of joint required for the assembly can be kept to a minimum.

What is claimed is: i

1. A refrigerator cabinet having a storage cavity and an open bottom recess below said cavity to accommodate a refrigeration unit and an air duct passage, said cabinet comprising a lining, an outer surface layer,

and an insulating body of foamed plastic material between the lining and outer surface layer thereby forming a sandwich construction having the shape of an open front container, said outer surface layer comprising a first sheet of thin material having a plurality of folds so as to define the outer surface layer of the top and side walls of the container, the lining of the end walls of said recess and the liner of said air duct passage, a second sheet of thin material defining the outer surface layer of at least an additional wall of said container and the remainder of the lining for said recess, a plurality of flanges on said first sheet of material for connection to said second sheet, and means for joining said second sheet with said first sheet thereby formin the complete outer surface layer of the container, the 111mg of said recess and the lining of the air duct passage.

2. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 further comprising an adhesive for joining said first sheet tosaid second sheet.

3. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 further comprising a plurality of mechanical fasteners for joining said first sheet to said second sheet of material.

4. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 wherein said first sheet of material of said outer surface further, defines a pair of double walls formed on both ends of said recess, the space within said double walls being filled with said foamed plastic material.

5. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 4 wherein said first and second sheets of material are a moisture-proofed cardboard.

6. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a sheet of plastics foil laminated to said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moistureproof. I

7. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a wax-coating on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.

8. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a coating of plastic on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.

9. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 wherein said cardboard is impregnated with a resinous compound so as to render it moisture-proof.

10. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a metal lamination on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.

11. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 10 wherein said metal is an aluminum foil.

mmm H10" 

1. A refrigerator cabinet having a storage cavity and an open bottom recess below said cavity to accommodate a refrigeration unit and an air duct passage, said cabinet comprising a lining, an outer surface layer, and an insulating body of foamed plastic material between the lining and outer surface layer thereby forming a sandwich construction having the shape of an open front container, said outer surface layer comprising a first sheet of thin material having a plurality of folds so as to define the outer surface layer of the top and side walls of the container, the lining of the end walls of said recess and the liner of said air duct passage, a second sheet of thin material defining the outer surface layer of at least an additional wall of said container and the remainder of the lining for said recess, a plurality of flanges on said first sheet of material for connection to said second sheet, and means for joining said second sheet with said first sheet thereby forming the complete outer surface layer of the container, the lining of said recess and the lining of the air duct passage.
 2. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 further comprising an adhesive for joining said first sheet to said second sheet.
 3. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 further comprising a plurality of mechanical fasteners for joining said first sheet to said second sheet of material.
 4. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 1 wherein said first sheet of material of said outer surfaCe further defines a pair of double walls formed on both ends of said recess, the space within said double walls being filled with said foamed plastic material.
 5. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 4 wherein said first and second sheets of material are a moisture-proofed cardboard.
 6. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a sheet of plastics foil laminated to said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.
 7. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a wax-coating on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.
 8. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a coating of plastic on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.
 9. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 wherein said cardboard is impregnated with a resinous compound so as to render it moisture-proof.
 10. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 5 further comprising a metal lamination on said cardboard so as to render said cardboard moisture-proof.
 11. The refrigerator cabinet according to claim 10 wherein said metal is an aluminum foil. 